This is how we play.

Will's first joke

Will: Knock Knock
Katherine: Who's there?
Will: Lyla
Katherine: Lyla who?
Will: (pause)
(pause)
(pause)

BOO!

Video of Will from 2010 Ring Family Reunion

Tick tock, tick tock, I'm a little cuckoo clock.

Grand Rapids Snow Removal

I can't believe people actually pay for this!

These guys do high quality work. Quite the professionals, if you ask me. A little slow, though.

Potty Power!!

Well, I admit we were quite surprised when Will suddenly expressed interest in going potty AND actually went (both #1 and #2) when we put him on there.

For the past week he had been saying "Potty" to us and pointing at his diaper so we would put him on the toilet and he would go a little bit. Then five minutes later (after getting him down and putting a new diaper on him) he would "soil" that diaper.

So this weekend, when he pointed and said "potty" I decided to put him on the toilet and let him sit there for a bit. I even offered to give him some privacy by leaving and closing the door (which he enthusiastically agreed to).

The result: two successful poops on the potty and the enjoyment of Will's hilarity whilst on the potty... which I decided to video and share with you all.

Enjoy!

*Special thanks to our friend Eliana for introducing us to the phrase of Potty Power.

Bedtime

Last night after my second trip up the stairs to calm the kids down, I said to Lyla "If you keep crying you don't get to watch any shows tomorrow and you will go straight to bed time-out." She started crying harder and said "That makes my feelings saaaaad!"

Reasons To Get Out of Bed When You Should Be Sleeping

Lyla just called down from the top of the stairs:

"Mommy, my nails are getting a little bigger!"

But Mom....

We spent the holiday weekend at my(Katherine's) parents house, and on Friday night my mom spiced things up a little bit by making a turkey biryani for dinner. Although Lyla had eaten a similar dish earlier in the week, when she took the first bite of this one it came right back out into her lap as she yelled "It's not tasty!"

Katherine

Dance Party

Grandpa (Katherine's dad) recorded a CD of songs for his grandchildren. It's a huge hit in our house and something Lyla and Will love to dance to.

(This one's my favorite.)

Boy v. Girl

When Lyla was around 18 months, she would play with her little Fisher Price sheep in the barn, letting them eat and go in and out of doors. This week Will was sitting in the car with two little sheep yelling "BAAAAAA BAAAAAAA" as he slammed them into each other.

Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls!!

Here's Lyla performing the Alphabet (from her Leap Frog video "The Letter Factory"):

Pretty darn awesome, if you ask me.

Summer Fun with CRAAAAZZZZYYYYY Kids

Seriously. Emily, Ally, Lyla, Will, and Chloe are crazy. So much fun to have them all together in one place. A bit overwhelming at times but fun nonetheless.

Crazy Lyla!! (You can see the remnants of her poison ivy on her arms)

Photojournalist Emily capturing the craziness on film.

Will... uh, sure used to drool a lot.

Ok, so maybe Chloe didn't participate in the craziness as much as everyone else.

Woo woo! Super Ally!

Cheese!!!!

Love the combination of his shaggy hair, tired eyes, super smile, and dirty shirt. Pretty much sums up Will.

There wasn't a surface in this house that these kids didn't climb up on to play.

So much fun.

Summer Fun at Meijer Gardens

Catching up on all the photos from all our adventures this summer. This is from when Katherine's brother and family drove all the way up from Texas to spend a week with us.


Butterflies!! Hurray!!


Great times with our cousins, playing in the Great Lakes at Meijer Gardens.

Happy Birthday Aunt Anna!!!

My little sister Anna turns six today! Whoa! We can't wait to see her and the rest of the family next weekend at the annual Ring Family reunion. We'll have to be sure and sing Happy Birthday to Anna while we're there.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA!!!!!

Moving day.

We're moving to a new house today. The house is the same size (3 bedroom / 1.5 baths) but has a better layout (more spacious, especially the kitchen) and has a yard.

We weren't thinking about moving, in fact Katherine and I had recently had our annual conversation where we state that we're not doing anything major this year (and we all know how well we do at sticking to that... new jobs, new babies, moving, major life changes... we never listen to ourselves).

So we say "No big change this year!" And literally two days later Amy from our church sends us this message:

Good morning, Last night as I was thinking about my "old" house, the two of you came to mind. Forgive me if I'm being nosy or presumptuous. I thought at one time in conversation, you guys said that you rented a house in EGR. My house is empty as of tomorrow and will be available to buy, rent, or even a rent to own kind of thing. I don't know what you're interested in, or what your future plans are, but I thought I would share the information with you.

We both read it and had sort of the same reaction: "Interesting... but we're not looking to make any big changes." But we decided to look at it and once we did all of these frustrations with our current living situation surface (well, only two frustrations really: our kitchen is SMALL - uncomfortably small - and we have no outdoor space to sit in or let the kids play). This made us realize that Lyla's at an age where we can't keep her inside all summer, that she needs to be able to get outside and play (just as we need to be able to send her outside to play... if you know what I mean).

So we saw the house and we were hooked, then it became a question of how long would it take for us to overcome our objections and commit to what a huge effort moving is.

5 days.

So in the course of a week we'd gone from "No big changes" to "Moving".

So here we are. Moving the last of our stuff in today (if the rain allows us to) and starting the next phase of our lives.

We'll post more pictures soon so you can see what it looks like... or, you can come visit us. You are always welcome.

Playing in the snow

So this took place a few weeks ago but I thought you'd enjoy it anyway...

Only twice this winter has is been warm enough (with no snow fall) to take the kids out to play in the snow on a Saturday. But when it happened, we made a point of taking Lyla out to play in it. Both times we went over to our friends' house and played in their driveway and yard.

It was a blast getting to pull Lyla around in a sled, sliding down the mounds of snow that the snowplows had left, making snow angels, and building snow men. For being a relatively low-key kid, Lyla sure has a sense of adventure (so long as she isn't too cold). She loved every moment of it... and as a result, so did I.

Looking forward to this aspect of next winter and having Will join us as well.

Enjoy!!

Happy Birthday Uncle Ryno!!!!

Our extended family has grown a lot in the past few months. Since November, Lyla and Will have gotten a new cousin, a new aunt, and a new uncle... all of whom they're very excited about.

Today is Uncle Ryno's (Julie's husband) birthday so we wanted to wish him a happy birthday and take a moment to say how glad we are that he is part of our family!!!

So here we go:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE RYNO!!! WE'RE VERY GLAD THAT YOU ARE PART OF OUR FAMILY!!!!

Seriously, though, Ryno's a great guy: kind, funny and all sorts of awesome. I mean, he's good enough to marry my sister and that's not something I say lightly. (I've actually threatened a boy who was dating my sister because I thought he was being disrespectful... I take my job as a big brother very seriously. I am very happy that Ryno is part of our family.)

Here are some pictures from Ryno and Julie's wedding last year:

Breaking News!!

Not really. But the only other title I could think of didn't seem appropriate.

Putting Lyla in her carseat to go to Ms. Linda's house (the kid's daycare provider), Lyla gave her "Oh no! Something mildly catastrophic is happening to me!" whine. Thinking I'd pinched her with the buckle or something like that I asked, "Are you okay? Did I get your leg in the buckle."

Her response, "No. My butt hurts."

Kind of flustered and trying to stifle my laughter as NOT to encourage such talk, I asked the only follow up I could think of. "Do you need me to kiss it?"

Luckily, she said, "No."

Happy Birthday Lyla!!!! *or* Holy Moley, I Can't Believe My Daughter is TWO!!!

Seriously? When did Lyla grow up? It seems like just 730 days ago that Katherine was telling me it was time to go to the hospital. Yet somehow my Little Button became my Little Baby and my Little Baby become my Little Girl. All those country songs suddenly make a lot of sense...

Friday, December 4 was destined to be a special day even before it began. For us the magic began the night before when the first snow fall of this winter began to fall. We were forecast to get 3 or 4 inches over night and boy did we. We awoke Friday morning to a blanket of soft, white, beautiful snow covering everything.

Typically I have mixed feelings about the snow. I love the serenity and the beauty of freshly fallen snow, but I dread the cold and the exertion of shoveling our walks. But this was different because this was going to be the first snow that Lyla got to play in and that she would remember. And it happened on her birthday, what a neat gift.

I think that Katherine and I were slightly more excited about Lyla's actual birthday than the Birthday Girl was. Granted she had been talking about her birthday non-stop for at least two weeks and had made us sing "Happy Birthday" to every single person that we know, at least once. But I awoke that day more excited than I'd been in awhile.

We started the day with a special breakfast: blueberry pancakes. Special because we seldom make pancakes. They were good. Then we got dressed and all went to Target, whoopie!! Look, just because it was Lyla's birthday doesn't mean we can avoid the day to day tasks of running our lives. We all went together so that was fun.

After Target, we came home and Lyla got ready to go outside. We got her snowsuit on plus her hat and these great winter boots she got from her friend Sadie. Out Lyla and I went and shoveled the path. I had bought a small snow-shovel for Lyla a couple weeks ago and she was more than happy to help me clear off the snow. After shoveling, she and I built our very first snowman. Nothing too special, we used a carrot for the nose and leaves for everything else. Lyla really enjoyed packing the snow down. I think he turned out rather nice and he sort of looks like Grover from Sesame Street.

After playing in the snow we came in and were treated to a nice lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. It was the perfect meal to warm us up from the cold. After we finished, the kids went down for naps and Katherine and I started to get ready for Lyla's party.

For her party we wrestled for a long time as to what to do. Last year we invited a few friends and their kids over, four families in total. In the subsequent 365 days, 3 of the 4 families had another child and all the other kids aged a year. As a result, having the same families over would have been pure chaos.

So instead, we invited two families for dinner. I made pork street tacos and they turned out pretty good. After dinner we did presents and then cupcakes. After dinner, the chaos slowly ratcheted up until the kids ended up hitting a wall. The following pictures will give you some idea of how chaotic just two additional families can be:

Playing with friends...

More friends, more playing...

Adults trying to converse as the kids play...

More playing...

Pretty soon Will had had enough...

So we opened presents...

And then we played with the presents...

Pretty soon Will and Kevin had had enough...

So it was time for the cake...

Lyla likes cake.

So does Ian...

So does Sadie...

And then it was over.

The next day, we woke up and played with our new toys.

Lyla drying her hair with Mommy..

Later that morning, we went over to Sadie's house for her 2-year-old birthday party. I decided that Will and I should dress a like... I'm glad I did.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LYLA!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Test video interview with my dad

This is a trial video I did with my dad and Lyla seeing if we are able to record a video call and post it on the website. Even though this was only practice, we did not hold back with regard to the seriousness or intensity of our conversation. You've been warned.